Quick fix

We all have things in French we’re not totally clear about and if you’re anything like me, they can sometimes remain unclear for months if not years, as there always seems to be something more pressing to learn.

That’s why it’s sometimes a good idea to do a quick sweep through the most commonly asked questions, to clear them up in one fell swoop. You may already know some and not others, or perhaps the whole list will be a total revelation to you. In any case, we hope you find it utile*.

A very small caveat: since it’s a quick fix, we’ve given preliminary explanations only. As you well know, French is replete with exceptions, so for more detailed information, come along to a lesson, or consult your favourite French grammar site (we recommend Lawless French).

Écouter means ‘to listen (to)’ whereas entendre means ‘to hear’. To me, entendre looks a bit like ‘enter’ so I imagine the sound actually entering my ear canals.

J’écoute la chanson sur Spotify - I am listening to the song on Spotify
J’entends les voisins qui font la fête - I hear the neighbours who are having a party

Parler means both ‘to speak’ and ‘to talk’.

Elle parle russe - She speaks Russian
Elle parle à son copain au téléphone - She talks to her boyfriend on the phone.

Dire means both ‘to say’ and ‘to tell’.

Vincent dit qu’il est de Lille - Vincent says he’s from Lille
Je lui dis la vérité - I tell him/her the truth

Voir is ‘to see’ whereas regarder means ‘to watch’ or ‘to look’

On ne va pas voir Mathieu demain - We’re not going to see Mathieu tomorrow
Elles regardent le film ensemble - They’re watching the film together
Je veux regarder la carte d’abord - I want to look at the menu first

This is a tricky one, since both verbs mean ‘to know’. There are a couple of different ways to approach the difference between the two verbs, but as a quick fix, this is a very solid start:

Savoir is used with verbs
Connaître is used for nouns (I like to translate it as ‘to be familiar with’ rather than ‘to know’)

Martin sait nager - Martin knows how to swim.
Tu connais un peu Paris? - Do you know Paris a little (are you familiar with Paris a little?)

Thinking of se promener as the equivalent of ‘to go for a stroll’ and marcher as more ‘to walk with a purpose’ should help make the right choice.

Je me promène dans le parc en face de chez moi - I go for a walk/stroll in the park opposite my house
Je marche lentement - I walk slowly

French Christmas Food

A French Christmas dinner is traditionally shared en famille* on the evening of the 24th December. True traditionalists will have a light supper before attending la messe de minuit*, then return home to the real sit-down dinner, which can last until 4am!

Florence from My Parisian Kitchen, a bilingual French cooking blog, has published her top picks for a traditional feast below, and though times are changing in France as everywhere, a quick straw poll au nid* revealed the team were plus ou moins* in agreement. Bon appétit*!

And let’s not forget le champagne*, of course! As per the My Parisian Kitchen article:

“This is not a dish but is actually something you definitely have to serve for a classic French Christmas eve dinner. You may want to pour in crème de cassis blackcurrant liquor to make a Kir Royal. But if the champagne is good, there’s no need!”

— Florence (My Parisian Kitchen)

[Read full article]

*with the family | *midnight mass | *the champagne | *at the nest | *more or less | *Happy eating!

Wine quotes

With la joie festive* top of mind for many, see if you're able to match the French citations* to their English translations.

*festive cheer | *quotes

ANSWERS : 1C 2A 3E 4B 5D

At Sixes and Sevens

We use idiomatic phrases involving numbers all the time in English. Don’t believe me?

• Back to square one

• Behind the eight ball

• Baker's dozen

…and I’m only up to the letter B on the list! It stands to reason the French do the same.

Here are some of our favourites.

Bouche

If you’re a person of un certain âge* who did some rudimentary French at school, we could almost guarantee you remember the phrase “Fermez la bouche*!”

Now we’re grown up, though, it’s time to expand our repertoire*, not only with a few more applications of the word bouche*, but with the real way to tell someone to shut it: ta gueule!*

*a certain age | *Close your mouth | *repertoire | *mouth | *shut your face

Les arbres fruitiers

All of the tutors here at Lingua Franca are French, with the exception of votre humble serviteur*. The team often comments on how practical the English language is, something that had never occurred to me before starting this job. They claim that things are often called exactly what they are in English, whereas in French the 'thing' has a totally different name.

For example:

C'est logique, non?*

So it's always a great feeling when you stumble across instances where French shows a logic that English lacks. It allows you to expand your vocabulary quickly and with a minimum of effort. So what is cette petite astuce*?

By adding the suffix -ier to almost any fruit, you will uncover the word for the tree that bears it. It's a great little hack and it works almost every time.

Note that while many of the fruits are feminine in gender, the trees are all masculine. We couldn't make it too easy now, could we?

*yours truly | It's logical, isn't it? | *this little trick

Vrais amis

In the very first lesson of our Absolute Beginner 1 course, we introduce you to the idea of cognates: words shared between languages. English has more than 7 500 of these words from French, and c'est garanti* you'd use at least one a day (think 'garage', 'entrepreneur', 'ballet' 'finance' and 'au pair').

As your learning progresses, we also admit there is another phenomenon at play, that of 'faux amis', or false friends (one of our tutors, Josephine prefers to call them 'bad friends' and she's not wrong!) These are words that look like English words, but have a different meaning (attention!*: attendre, journée and préservatifs may not mean what you think they do). But let's focus on the positive and return to the vrais amis*, which offer what all good friendships do - help and support when you need it.

Take a couple of minutes to regarder la liste* which is helpfully categorised into useful adjectives, nouns and verbs.

Be sure to remind yourself that you're reading French as you run your eye down the list. It can be quite a mind-bending exercise. Bonne lecture*!

*it’s guaranteed | *Be careful! | *true friends/cognates | *look at the list | *Happy reading!

Coup

If you've been learning French for a little while, you may have come across the word 'coup'. Perhaps you've seen un coup de téléphone or un coup de fil (both used for phone call). Even before French came into your life, you were probably familiar with a coup d’état* (even if we Anglophones tend to pronounce it something like 'koo day tar' rather than the more sonorous way it should be said).

What you may not know, though, is that coup has a huge range of translations, from 'blow' or 'knock', to 'attack' or even 'drink' and all the way to Vulgarville with 'f*ck'. So, a multi-dimensional word at the very least!

Where it really comes into its own, though, is in les formes composées*

Jetez un œil!*

Les essentiels

Ne quittez pas la maison* without learning these extremely useful words. Not sure of the meaning of one or two? We couldn’t live without www.wordreference.com here at Lingua Franca. It is always the first tab I open in the morning on my computer and in ten years, I could count on one hand the number of times it has not had a word I was looking for.

*Do not leave home

Les saisons

What would your vocabulary list look like to encapsulate the seasons? A fun exercise to while away le temps*.

*the time

Les faux amis

At Lingua Franca we're always encouraging you to take risks with your French. You'll often hear us saying "Just have a guess!" when you're stuck for a word, since we know there's a fairly good chance you'll get it right. French and English share at least 10 000 words, so it's not a bad stratégie* (see?), except when you get it wrong...

The culprit in these instances is usually a faux ami, or a false friend. These are words that look the same or similar in both languages, but have différent* meanings.The naughty Chouchous amongst you will already know to avoid excité* and préservatifs*, but there are many more seemingly innocuous words that can trip you up on your way to conquering la langue française*.

un bouton ≠ a button.
Well, it does actually but it also means a pimple, so attention*.

la monnaie ≠ money.
La monnaie actually means change, so if you hear someone saying "Je n'ai pas la monnaie." it doesn't mean they're broke, just that they might need to break a fifty.

la déception ≠ deception.
We nearly didn't employ someone once when he told us that since he'd worked in sales, he was very familiar with deception. Déception means disappointment, not being untruthful.

la location ≠ the location.
Have you ever seen a sign at a French airport indicating 'location de voitures'? I always assumed it meant the place where the cars were located (and it was never clear to me which cars, by the way), but it made a lot more sense when I finally realised location means 'rental'.

le pain ≠ the pain.
In fact it's the opposite. In France, le pain (bread) is usually synonymous with a whole lot of pleasure.

un tissu ≠ a tissue.
A tissue is un mouchoir, whereas tissu simply means fabric. By the way, for a vrai ami (true friend), you can always say 'un Kleenex' instead of un mouchoir for tissue. The glory of la globalisation*, non?

une prune ≠ a prune. How is that possible? How could it not mean prune? Because une prune is a plum and a prune is un pruneau. Tu piges*?

un slip ≠ a slip. In fact, un slip refers to a pair of men's undies. Not boxers but briefs. Which reminds me, les culottes does not refer to a wide-legged pair of pants. Les culottes is a slang word for women's knickers. Mignon, non*?

By the way, we're not immune to falling into the faux ami trap here at the office either. We're all second-language learners, like you, and have had our share of embarrassing language-related incidents over the years. For example:

• Katrina recently responded to a text of Myriam's thanking her for something by saying "Ça me donne beaucoup de plaisir". She thought she was saying “it gives me a lot of pleasure”, meaning, you're welcome. Apparently not. Phrased that way, it means it gives me a lot of physical, even erotic, pleasure, which was really not her intention! She’s since been told the correct phrase is "Ça me fait très plaisir."

• Myriam's own slip-up was more a question of pronunciation. When she first arrived in Australia and was setting up the house and buying bed linen, she went shopping for 'shits'. Oops.

• The first time someone told Deborah they worked in hospitality, she assumed they worked in a hospital. Tellement mignon*!

• Josephine was trying to explain her physique to someone and wanted to talk about her 'measurements' which in French is 'les mensurations'. Translating (almost) directly from French to English she ended up saying that her menstruations were not standard. La honte!*

*strategy | *different | *sexually excited | *condoms | *the French language | *be careful | *globalisation | *Get it? | *Cute, isn't it? | *So cute! *How embarrassing!

De quoi ? | Say what ?

De quoi ? | Say what ?

se prendre un râteau | rouler une pelle

©EverEarth

What is it about the French using gardening tools to describe amorous pursuits? Perhaps they really love their jardinage*?

Prendre un rateau* is a colloquial French saying and is used to describe the (often humiliating) experience of being rejected by a love interest. So why are we talking about râteaux*? Well, if you think about it, c’est logique*. Imagine you’re walking along, dreaming about your intended, and you step on the teeth of a rake. What happens? Well, the handle hits you in the face and you’re laid out flat. Ça fait mal*, c’est humiliant* and ça laisse des traces*. We can all feel the pain, non?

“Oh le pauvre, il a essayé de draguer Martine, mais il a pris un râteau.” 

“ Oh the poor thing, he tried to pick up Martine, but she rejected him.”

Less violent, but perhaps even more excruciating, by the way, is to be put in the ‘juste-un-pote’* category, ’ with ‘pote’ meaning ‘mate’ or ‘friend’. Ouch!

So what if, in fact, you’re lucky enough to not ‘prendre un râteau’, but succeed in winning over your paramour? Well then, you might have to change verbs (and nouns for that matter) and rouler une pelle, which means ‘to snog’. Why is French kissing known in France as ‘rolling a spade’? You’d have to ask a French person. Sérieusement*, I’m out of ideas.

*gardening | *to take a rake | *rakes | *it makes sense | *it hurts | *it's humiliating | *it leaves a mark | *friend-zone | *seriously

EN UN MOT | IN A WORD

EN UN MOT | IN A WORD

CURFEW

C'est vrai*, curfew is an English word, but did you know it has French origins?

Curfew originates from Middle French and is a mix of two words: the verb couvrir (to cover) and the noun feu (fire).

For the real intellos* out there, the word dates from the early 14th century and was originally, in Old French, cuevrefeu. Cuevre is the imperative form of the verb covrir, which later became couvrir as we know it today.

So why were the French being told to couvre-feu*? Well, it seems William the Conqueror, or Guillaume le Conquérant, the first Norman King of England, was to blame. Also known as Guillaume le Bâtard*, perhaps he was just a huge killjoy who wanted everyone safely tucked into bed by a certain heure*? In fact, his bastard moniker referred the fact that he was the son of Robert Le Magnifique* (imagine having such a great name?) and his maîtresse*, Arlette de Falaise, not that he was just a big old rabat-joie*.

In fact, demanding that townspeople return home to deaden or cover up their fires (not necessarily extinguish them) at the ringing of an 8pm bell served two purposes for William. Prohibiting the use of live fires after the curfew bell was used as a repressive measure to prevent rebellious gatherings of the conquered English. But clever William was able to pass this off as concern for his fellow citizens. Since most houses at the time were made of timber and particularly susceptible to fire, being forced to cover them at the ringing of the bell greatly reduced the risk of incendies*. Malin, non?*

*It's true | *brain-boxes | *cover-fire | *William the Bastard | *hour | *Robert the Magnificent | *mistress | *party pooper | *fires | *Clever, eh?

SAY WHAT? | DE QUOI?

SAY WHAT? | DE QUOI?

ÊTRE À CÔTÉ DE SES POMPES

Photo credit: Shopstyle

I think we can all agree that les pompes* in the above photo are sérieusement sexy*.

So how did the French expression ‘to be beside your pumps’ come to denote a rather unsexy state of mind?  And why are you beside your pompes and not in them?

As you may know, the French word for shoes is chaussures*. The word pompes came about in the 19th century as a slang word for shoes, allegedly since their flimsier construction let water in via the soles, thereby turning them into little suction pumps (pompes aspirantes).

Since shoes are associated with walking, and therefore the idea of direction, it stands to reason that if you’re not walking in your pompes, but to the side of them, you’re not exactly focused. It describes the idea of doing something without thinking, of not being in the moment, of there being a décalage* between thought and reality. A more dramatic definition describes an angoisse existentielle*, or a difficulty in adapting to the real world.

In English, we have many ways of expressing this idea, though none possibly as evocative as être à côté de ses pompes. We talk of ‘not being with it’, or ‘being out of sorts’ or even ‘being away with the fairies’. Come to think of it, that’s a lovely expression! 

The word pompe is a useful little word. Here are some other meanings:

les pompes = push-ups

• Mon entraîneur fait 200 pompes avant d'arriver à la salle de sport.

• My trainer does 200 push-ups before he gets to the gym.

avoir un coup de pompe = to have wave of tiredness

• Oh là, j’ai un coup de pompe. Je vais faire une petite sieste.

• Wow, I’m suddenly really tired. I’m going to have a little nap.

être une pompe à fric = to be a money pit

• Ce bateau est une vraie pompe à fric.

• That boat is a real money pit.

lâcher les pompes = to leave someone alone

• C’est ma décision, alors lâche-moi les pompes!

• It’s my decision, so get off my back!

*pumps | *seriously sexy | *shoes | *gap | *existential anguish

EN UN MOT | IN A WORD

EN UN MOT | IN A WORD

curfew

If you're a student of French, I sincerely hope you've had the luck to experience a moment when for some reason, all of a sudden ça fait tilt*. As a lover of language, there's nothing I like more than when a word I've been using unthinkingly all my life takes on a whole new relevance thanks to my studies.

Take the example of the English word 'vinegar' for example. Have you ever paused to ponder its provenance? Probably not, I would venture.

However, when you look at the French word for it, vinaigre, it really does make a lot of sense. Most of you know the French word for 'wine': vin. But do you know what aigre* means? Oui, c'est ça*: sour. So vinaigre = sour wine. C'est logique, non?*

A further dig into wordreference.com turns up these beauties:

• tourner au vinaigre - to turn sour (literally and figuratively)

• un pisse-vinaigre - a sourpuss/grump

• On n'attrape pas les mouches avec du vinaigre - You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Again, j'adore mon travail*.

*something clicks | *sour | *Yes, that's it | * It makes sense, doesn't it? | *I love my job

DE QUOI? | say what?

DE QUOI? | say what?

REtournons à nos moutons | Let's return to our sheep

If I had a euro for every time I've pulled this one out in a lesson...

I love this French saying as it not only evocative but effective as well.

Our French lessons here at Lingua Franca are casual affairs. Of course, we want our students to learn, and we're happy to report they do, but with groups of like-minded people passionate about French as well as countless other topics, we can sometimes become side-tracked. 'Retournons à nos moutons' (which literally means 'let's return to our sheep' or more colloquially 'let's get back to the subject') is a gentle and amusing way to remind everyone to come back to the topic at hand - le français*.

Apparently the saying originated from a 15th century French play called La Farce de Maître Pierre Pathelin. It tells the story of five characters, each more dishonest than the next, and includes a courtroom scene where the accused is instructed by his lawyer to answer all questions directed at him by saying 'Baaa' in an attempt to have him declared mentally instable. Sounds très drôle* indeed.

*French | *very funny